Hi guys I wanted to share my honest opinion about the Winsor & Newton professional watercolours. I really hope you'll find it helpful! Winsor&Newton has been making paints for almost two hundred years. In this long period of time they had the chance to perfect the formulas of their colours in order to create something to fullfil every artist's needs. The quality of their paints is wellknown so every painter at least once in life will end up using their products. Now they are also working to certify some of their paints as vegan-friendly and they don't test on animals. As you may know or not know Winsor & Newton professional watercolurs both pans and tubes contain ox gall. Also some of the cotman paints contain it: Raw Umber, Ivory Black and Viridian Hue. Ox gall is used as a wetting agent that allows the colours to be creamier and be the amazing watercolours we all know!But if you have vegan lifestyle you can't really use them. The pigments used are extra-fine and they perform really well in terms of vibrancy. The permanence, the opacity, the transparency, the lightfastness all depend on the pigments used and these information are all writed on the wraps. They can also behave in different ways on different papers so you should test them on your favourite paper. The price range per colour goes from 6 to 15 euros. The set I've bought contains 24 half pans. The majority of the colours are made with one pigment which is a very nice thing. Do you know that you shouldn't mix more then three colour together? If you mix more then three colours together you might end up with a dull and muddy colour, so it is always the best to choose one pigment paints so you are free to mix your own colours.I have to say a thing about the tin box. It's not super good quality, it feels weak and cheap compared to the schmincke one.
Lemon yellow is a one pigment colour made with py53 (nickel titanium oxide). It is an opaque colour and it is marked as very lightfast. I think that it can be easily lifted. It doesn't leave a strong stain. Not one of my favourite yellows tho, the colour is a little bit dull.
Winsor yellow is a one pigment colour made with py154 (benzimidazolone yellow). This is a beautiful transparent yellow. Marked ad very lightfast, it is also very staining and very intense. 
Aureolin is a one pigment colour made with py40 (potassium cobaltinitrite). It was introduces as a repleacement for Indian yellow and natural gombage. If you don't know it Indian yellow was produced from the urine of cattle fed only on mango leaves and water and the gombage was extracted from the resin of old trees.This yellow is very bright and transparent, but the lightfastness is not the higher. It can be lifted, but it leaves a little stain.
Winsor orange is a one pigment colour made with p062 (benzimidazolone orange). It is an intense orange, semi opaque, very staining and pretty lightfast.
Winsor red is a one pigment colour made with pr254 (pyrrole red ). It is a bright neutral red, very staining, very lightfast and semi transparent. Sometimes it is used as a sostitute to cadmium red that is toxic. This pigment is also used to color the famous Ferrari cars.
Permanent alizarin crimson is a one pigment colour made with pr206 (quinacridone pyrrolidone). This is a cool red pretty staining and very transparent. The lightfastness is not indicated. For what I know this pigment has a medium lightfastness. The autenthical alizarin crimson used to be extracted from madder's roots, but it was not very stable so now it's made with quinacridone.
Permanent rose is a one colour pigment made with pv19 (quinacridone rose). This colour can be considered a primary red. It is very bright, intense, transparent and staining. The lightfastness is not indicated, but for what I know it is pretty lightfast.
Winsor violet is a one pigment colour made with pv23 ( dioxazine violet ). This colour is one of my favourite. It is very very intense, transparent, staining, dark and it behave super well on wet on wet. It is well known that violet pigments are not very lightfast indeed the lightfastness is not indicated. Even tho it seems like this from winsor & newton has decent lightfastness not many artists trust it.
French ultramarine and Ultramarine (green shade) are one pigment colours made with pb29 (sodium aluminum sulfosilicate). This is a blue colour that tend to purple. I bought the ultramarine green shade before buying the set. The difference between the two is unnoticeable. They're both very intense,lightfast, transparent and lightly staining. This super famous colour used to be extracted from precious stones called Lapislazzuli. It was very expensive, but it was used by the most famous artists of the world like Michelangelo. Indeed the blue you see in the Sistine Chapel is ultramarine blue.
Winsor blue (green shade) is a one pigment colour made with pb15 (Phthalocyanine Blue). This is a very beautiful, rich, intense and transparent blue. It's pretty staining and with a medium lightfasteness.
Cerulean blue is a one pigment colour made with pb35 (cobalt tin oxide). It is a semi opaque and very ligthfast colour. It granulates a lot. Since it is opaque it looks a little dull that's why I'm not a fan of it.
Prussian blue is a one pigment colour made with pb27( hydrous ferric ferrocyanide). This color is very light, trasparent and super staining. It cannot be liftted at all. Now, I don't know if there's someting wrong with the pan I have, but it has a different consinstency then the others it is very hard and the colour barely comes out. It is very disappointing since prussian blue is usually very dark and rich!
Indigo is a colour made with three pigments pbk6(Carboon black), pv19(quinacridone), pb15(Phthalocyanine Blue). It has a medium lightfastness, it is opaque, extrimely intense, dark and lighly staining.
Payne's grey is a colour made with three pigments pb15(Phthalocyanine Blue), pbk6 (Carboon black), pv19 (quinacridone). It is one of the colours I always use. You can mix it yourself, but having it already made comes in handy. It is very intense, semi opaque, with a decent lightfastness and lightly staining.
Viridian is a one pigment colour made with pg18 (hydrous chromium sesquioxide). This colour is a disappointment as the prussian blue. It has the same hard-as-rock consistency and even here the colour barely comes out. Viridian green is usally more intense then this. Anyway this is very transparent and very lightfast.
Permanent sap green is a colour made with two pigments pg36 (chlorobrominated copper phthalocyanine ) and py110 (isoindolinone yellow).This colour is dark, transparent and lightfast, but I find the colour to be a little dull.
Olive green is a colour made with three pigments py65 (arylide yellow), pb15 (Phthalocyanine Blue) and pr101 (Synthetic Iron Oxide Red). This colour is transparent, pretty lightfast and it can be easily lifted. It is a very useful colour and I really like it.
Ivory black is a one pigment colour made with pbk9(bone black). This is a warm black not particulary intence. It is opaque and lightfast. As the name says it used to be made with burned ivory, but now it is illegal so they use burned animal bones instead. A little creepy.
Burnt umber is a colour made with three pigments pbr7 (Brown Iron Oxide), pr101 (Synthetic Iron Oxide Red), py42 (Yellow Iron Oxide). It is a nice colour and pretty hard to lift. It is transparent and lightfast.
Burnt sienna is a one pigment colour made with pr101(Synthetic Iron Oxide Red). It is lightfast, transparent and lightly staining.It is a pretty colour perfetct to make skintones.
Raw umber is a one pigment colour made with pbr7 (Brown Iron Oxide). It is lightfast and transparent. It is kind of patchy tho. Not one of my favourite.
Raw sienna is a colour made with two pigments py42 (Yellow Iron Oxide) and pr101 (Synthetic Iron Oxide Red). This colour is pretty intense, transparent and lightfast. It can be lifted SUPER easily. Don't use it as a base.
Yellow ochre is a one pigment colour made with py43 (Natural Yellow Iron Oxide). It is semi opaque, lightfast and lightly staining. The colour is pretty intense. Perfect to mix skin tones.
This set also include chinese white which is a semi opaque white so, for me, it is pretty useless. If mixed with other colours can make everything looks dull. Unless that's the effect you are going for just don't. To get a lighter colour with watercolours you just need to water down the colours.
By the way I also made a video:
P.S.
The swatches aren't 100% accurate because the colours might change due to different monitors.
That's it. I really hope that this post was helpful for you or at least interesting. Bye bye~
That's it. I really hope that this post was helpful for you or at least interesting. Bye bye~
-wero-
Hi Veronika,
ReplyDeleteThis review was extremely useful and thank you for being so informative. Just to confirm your findings, I found both the Prussian blue and Viridian colours to be extremely hard to activate. I've been looking at other reviews of W&N professional set on youtube and elsewhere, hardness of viridian, seems to be common to all reviewers but not the Prussian blue. I am going to make a direct complaint to W&N about these two and see what they come back with. If I get anything useful out of them, I'll let you know. Thanks again and keep well. Alpay Beler